Published:
2005-01-02
Updated:
2024-06-05
Learning Ukulele with Curt
Upper Partial Chord Tones
Upper Partials or extensions for chords are the 9th, 11th, and 13ths of a chord. The 9, 11 and 13 can be altered chord tones depending on the type: e.g: b9, #9, #11, b13. These numbers, the 9, 11 and 13 refer to the scale tone/chord tone relative to the major scale used for building all chords.
Author(s): Curt Sheller Publisher: Curt Sheller Publications Code: UL42-ext
Main Category: Chords Main Instrument: Any
Categories: Chords
2026-08-23
RelatedLessonAssets
Upper Partials or extensions are the 9th, 11th, and 13ths of a chord. The 9, 11 and 13 can be altered chord tones depending on the type: examples b9, #9, #11, b13.
These numbers, the 9, 11 and 13 refer to the scale tone/chord tone relative to the major scale used for building all chords.
At this stage of your development, you should know the notes of the fingerboard and have a core foundation of 4-part chords, a.k.a."Jazz" chords and can create these on the fly if they're not already part of your core music vocabulary.
A simple rule to remember is that a ninth (9th) chord is created by raising the root of ANY chord a whole step.
See Upper Partials and Chord Extensions lesson for an expanded lesson on this topic with a PDF download.
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